SpeckTech / ???

@SpeckTech, here's the thread to discuss your chargen. You can have a look at others to have a rough idea.

Background:

Luna is a fox girl who was raised as a shrine maiden after being abandoned at a shrine. The kind, elderly human priest took her in and raised her in secret, albeit as if she was his own grandchild. The shrine was not popular, and financial woes loomed over their heads, but they had a simple, happy life. However, Luna had a frail constitution that only worsened as she grew older. Perhaps she was the runt of her litter.

As thanks for Luna and her "grandpa"’s devotion, or maybe just on a whim, Freya, the fox Kami enshrined in their temple, decided to share her divine power with Luna and restore her constitution. This did not come without a price though, as it was necessary for a minor Kami like Freya to enshrine herself in Luna’s body to offer her aid. On the night of a full moon (or if endurance = 0), Luna must perform a ritual with Freya to replenish her spiritual energy. Failing to do so will weaken Luna until she can perform the ritual again during the next full moon.

Additionally, Freya may possess Luna’s body from time to time depending on the circumstances and danger levels (essentially acting as a split personality). Luna has good knowledge of rituals, spiritual barriers, and applying talismans, but she is deficient in combat otherwise. With a katana, Freya is much more skilled, albeit still limited due to Luna’s body.

Whereas Luna is a kind and naïve girl, like a pure little sister who only deserves head pats, Freya is the opposite. As a divine being, Freya has a huge ego and a more dominant personality. Freya is also cruder when it comes to matters regarding sex.

Due to old age and finances, it later became necessary for Luna’s grandpa to close down the shrine and enter a retirement/assisted living home. Thankfully, Luna was admitted to Yokai Academy and awarded a scholarship and a permanent dorm residence due to her circumstances.

TL;DR Luna is possessed by Freya, a fox kami, and needs to perform a ritual every full moon or else her health deteriorates. She’s a poor student living in the dorms on a scholarship. Luna was raised as a shrine maiden and is knowledgeable regarding rituals and talismans, but also carries around a katana for Freya when she takes control of her body. Luna is kind and naïve, while Freya is smug and vulgar.

As for what the ritual Luna must perform actually entails, I haven’t quite decided yet. It could be needing a special bath, or something more ecchi given the source material if that's okay.

Age: 15/Highschool Freshman
Gender: Female
Height: 4’10"
Eye color: Gold (pink when Freya is in control)
Possessions: Shrine maiden outfit, ceremonial katana, various talismans and charms.
Hobbies: morning jogs, yoga, volunteering, visiting cafes
School Uniform: The standard uniform with a white shirt, cream jersey, scarlet tie, and red pleated skirt. Luna also wears thigh-high stockings, adding an element of zettai ryouiki.

Attack +2 (with a katana)
Barrier +2 (using talismans)
Performer +2 (shrine maiden duties/performances)
Agile +1
Evasive +1
Cute! +2
Lucky +2
Sixth Sense +2 (due to being Freya's host)
Spirit Medium +3 (due to being a Freya's host)
Total +17

Awkward Size -1 (short height)
Frail -1
Kind-Hearted -1
Naïve -1
Poor -1
Room for Two -2 (Freya talking to Luna in her head)
Shy -1
Split Personality -2 (whenever Freya possesses Luna’s body)
Unique Weakness -2 (must perform purification ritual monthly or when endurance = 0, or get stat penalty)
Total -12

Health 30 (due to frail)
Endurance 40 (30 if unique weakness is active)

As for perks and flaws and anything else that I'm missing, it’s late so I’m going to look at them in more detail tomorrow 😴💤💤. This is just what I’ve drafted right now, and I'm open for more feedback too.

In my humble opinion, your draft looks great and I'm excited to meet your character! One thing just to help out i think you can get 1 more point by adding the focus weakness since you already are saying you need the katana for your attack

Hi, very interesting character! And Tacokarp is right about that, actually, you could add focus -2, as her barrier also depends on talismans. Furthermore, you could have suppressed power in your Attack ability (requiring being under control of Freya to use it to its full - and of course, raise the value then). Just a tip: unless you intend to spend a lot of endurance with perks that increase the attack roll, you should pick Combat Expert/Agile to raise it.

Thanks for the feedback ^_^

I added focus as a weakness, but only for the barrier. I think the weapon flaw is more suited for the katana attack (the guide says focus and weapon flaws can't stack?). That + suppressed power weakness/combat expert ability works better in my opinion.

For the perks/flaws, I'm assuming they're optional modifiers to abilities, so I spitballed the abilities with a basic ability + modified versions. I'm assuming this is the right direction to take things.

Attack +2 (Katana)
Barrier +2 (Talisman)
Performer +2 (Shrine Maiden performance)
Agile +1
Evasive +1
Combat Expert +3 (Active with Freya possession)
Cute! +2
Lucky +2
Sixth Sense +2
Spirit Medium +3
Total +20

Awkward Size -1
Frail -1
Focus -1 (applies to barrier talismans)
Kind-Hearted -1
Naïve -1
Poor -1
Room for Two -2 (Freya talking to Luna inside her head)
Shy -1
Split Personality -2 (Freya possesses Luna’s body)
Suppressed power -2
Unique Weakness -2 (ritual needed during full moon/when endurance = 0, else endurance stat penalty)
Total -15

Health 30
Endurance 40 (30 if unique weakness is active)

Abilities + Perk/Flaw modifications

Luna
-Small Talisman Barrier
-Large Talisman Barrier
---Perk: Area Effect +10
-Basic Attack (Katana)
---Suppressed Power
---Flaw: Weapon -5

Freya
-Unsuppressed power = combat expert bonus is also active
-Basic Attack (Katana)
---unsuppressed power
---Flaw: Weapon -5
-Crescent Moon (Katana attack)
---unsuppressed power
---Perk: Area Effect +10
---Flaw: Weapon -5
-Moonlit Gale (Katana attack)
---unsuppressed power
---Perk: Multi target, up to 3x. +10 to +30 (based on number of targets attacked)
---Flaw: Open to attack -25
---Flaw: Weapon -5

Alright, got it. Just clear me on a doubt, is combat expert +5 (and +3 when suppressed)? That's what you meant, right?

By the way, you have no profit with a -5 Endurance cost, you should apply a perk even to her basic attack (like effect) to not waste that.

Is that how suppressed power works? I thought it would be +1 when suppressed and +3 when not.

I'll add 1 level of effective to her basic attack then to keep things balanced.

-Basic Attack (Katana)
---Perk: Effective +5
---Flaw: Weapon -5

Yes, suppressed works like that, you subtract from the Ability's value until the requirements aren't there.

Ah, ok. I'll reduce combat expert to +1 then. Since that gives me 2 points to spare, I'll put them in iron-willed. I also swapped performer for knowledge since it fits her lore better.

Attack +2 (Katana)
Barrier +2 (Talisman)
Knowledge +2 (Shrine Maiden upbringing)
Agile +1
Evasive +1
Combat Expert +1 (Active with Freya possession)
Cute! +2
Iron-willed +2
Lucky +2
Sixth Sense +2
Spirit Medium +3
Total +20

Well, technically, an Ability with Suppressed power costs nothing (until +4), so I think you should raise it higher, so that she actually becomes scary in combat when Freya's in control. I'd suggest +3 (the maximum value, which wouldn't cost you anything because of Suppressed ability). Furthermore it would be nice if you define a more objective parameter for when Freya would take control.

ok, so suppressed power will go to -3, and agile will go to +2 to stay balanced at +21/-16. That would bring an unsuppressed combat expert up to 4 if that's okay.

I was thinking of some kind of penalty for Freya's possession, since it would consume more spiritual energy lore-wise. A penalty such as increased endurance costs for attacks, or only lasting for X rounds with an endurance cost to activate or a penalty afterwards (like recoil).

Ok, those are good ideas too. What I was thinking about was some requirement to activate it, like how Split Personality already mentions in when stressed or confronted by some other trigger. These are just suggestions though, you're already going to the right path.

For the split personality, lore-wise it’s like Yugi/Yami from Yu-Gi-Oh! Or Pyra/Mythra from Xenoblade, where they can switch at will. But a forced change as a result of injury (say, half health), psychological stress, or fainting is a good idea too.

As far as game mechanics go, I was thinking of it as a 0 cost ability with 3-5 rounds of possession and then 1 turn of recoil. If I decide to use it, it wouldn't use up my turn (or rather, I get to take an action again like this https://youtu.be/B-zch8HMtjM?t=35). Something like additional endurance cost for katana attacks might be too limiting, but it would also depend on the length of combat.

If you just want to be able to switch personalities at will, I think you can just do that no need to add a cost, especially of someone can force a change through one of the methods you suggested.

Yeah, Tacokarp is right, that's ok.

okay then. I'll leave it without an activation cost and keep the triggers. I think it'll be better to make it so that Freya just takes control during combat in general to keep things simpler (ie split personality activates during combat). Would that be fine for the objective parameter you wanted?

Well, depending on your idea, that's well enough, I merely gave a suggestion. I'd further add that having Freya appear only during combat would maybe limit her social interaction (if that's something you want to develop).

But you/we could come up with something later, we could just go with it (her transformation) and see how it goes.

Yeah. I'll go with what I have currently and then tweak it later if it's not working out.

Your character is approved! Good job! You can introduce your character by the first thread (like the others did), and chose her first actions.